Vega time machine unearthed in good condition
1975 Chevy Vega unearthed from time capsule after 50 years. It was in surprisingly good condition!
In case you missed the introduction of the 1975 Chevy Vega, one has just been dug up in Seward, Nebr. It hasn’t been started or driven, nor touched by human hands, for 50 years.
The brand new, bright yellow, four-passenger 1975 Vega coupe was chosen to represent the state of the automobile industry in a time capsule that was constructed, filled with a variety of items and sealed, not to be opened for 50 years.
That time has come, and during Seward’s Fourth of July celebration the treasures of the crypt went on display to the public for the first time.
In the middle of the 20th century, sealing printed records and small souvenir items into the cornerstone of a new building under construction was common. Occasionally, that practice expanded into building time capsules in which to preserve larger items, not to be opened until a certain length of time had passed, usually 50 years.
Harold Davisson, a civic-minded furniture business owner, brought up the idea of creating a time capsule, and the Seward community quickly got behind the project. Not your ordinary underground crypt, this one at 20 feet long, ten feet wide and six feet high, was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest, and Guinness has retired the category.
A 1975 automobile would be the centerpiece of the feature, to compare with the flying cars many were expecting by 2025. The Vega was more conventional than the rear-engine, air-cooled Corvair it replaced at the bottom end of the Chevrolet model line-up. The Vega engine is configured as an in-line 4-cylinder with an aluminum block and overhead camshaft. It produces 78 horsepower from 140 cubic inches of displacement. A floor shifter controls the standard 3-speed transmission.
Davisson bought the Vega to occupy the time capsule from the local Chevrolet dealer, Rolfsmeier Motors, for $2,598.16, a good deal since the sticker price, still on the left rear window, shows $3,035.65. The only options were wheel trim rings and 6.00x13 white-stripe tires. The fold-down rear seat was standard.
Local Seward concrete contractor Dick O’Dell designed the capsule with 12-inch-thick poured concrete walls, floor and ceiling. Well sealed and buried under four feet of dirt by the O’Dell Construction Co. crew, the structure performed as promised, protecting its valuable and historic cargo from water and any other elements.
A Kawasaki 90cc. dirt bike was another motor vehicle placed in the capsule. Kawasaki Motors had just built a manufacturing plant the year before some 30 miles down the road in Lincoln.
Walker Manufacturing Co., which had recently located a muffler plant in Seward, donated one of their products with an engraved brass plate attached to the collection of artefacts.
As items were being placed in the capsule on July 4, 1975, then-Nebraska Governor J.J. Exon climbed down a ladder with a screwdriver and attached a license plate to the front bracket stamped with the number “2025.”
Hundreds of local residents wrote letters to their future children and grandchildren and placed them into the vault. Most survived the long sleep with little damage.
Harold Davisson died in 1990, and his daughter, Trish Davisson Johnson, has taken over as “keeper of the crypt.” She has a team working to return hundreds of letters and artifacts to their owners and surviving relatives.
It produces 78 horsepower from 140 cubic inches of displacement. John Lee
The Vega survived its 50-year entombment in surprisingly good condition. Sealing of the 12-inch-thick concrete capsule prevented water from leaking in, though condensation was responsible for minor rusting around the front lip of the hood. Vega owners said, “They all did that.”
When a crane lifted the yellow coupe out into fresh air and set it down onto four skates under the wheels, only one tire was low on air.
No effort has yet been made to start the Vega and see if it will drive down the street. The 60,000-mile warranty certificate was still in the car, although it has surely timed out by now.
A half-dozen members of the Chevy Vega Owners Club showed up to help celebrate their brother’s resurrection by driving in Seward’s Fourth of July parade.
The “keeper of the crypt,” Trish Davisson Johnson, has not announced any future plans for the yellow Vega except “not another time capsule!”
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